20 three were singing away like larks. One was having a fine time with the "F org- ing of the Sword" from "Siegfried." Specialist M OST of the "No Parking" signs you see lettered on curbstones in front of shops, restaurants, and ho- tels are done by Mr. R. T. Wilkinson. His is a history of extreme specializa- tíon: for the past eight years he has done nothing but paint the two words "No Parking," always on curbstones, al- ways in white block letters. He never feels any urge to branch out into other kinds of sign-painting and deplores the fact that his field is sometimes invaded by painters with no special knowledge of the problems of painting "No Park- ing" in white block letters on curbstones. "Live and let live" is his motto. A Wilkinson sign costs three dollars and lasts from three to four months, after which he retouches it, for a dollar and a half. The retouching jobs, which take only twenty minutes, Mr. Wilkin- son considers the most profitable part of his trade. He is paid by the super- intendent of the building or the ten- ant who orders the Job. He does his own soliciting and follow up work, and makes about thirty dollars a week, year in and year out. He paints with his i,,:, I p> (tnN6 .-:.' .,,:';::::: left hand and uses a special mixture of concrete, much more lasting than ordinary paint. It was the depression which led him into this field; previous- ly he had been a bank clerk. His signs are not legally binding, but what driver ever won an argument with a door- l11an ? C llronic A YOUNG couple, moodily staring at the lions in the Central Park Zoo, were overheard discussing the next war. "The next war will start in India," the youth was saying very positively. "Why, the natives are the most super- stitious people in the world. Do you know that the untouchables mustn't even cast their shadows on other people?" "Goodness! " the girl exclaimed. "Can't they be cured?" T l e Words T ELEVISION has been forging ominously ahead, it seems, and in no time at all will be upon us, with full- time broadcasts and receiving sets priced for every purse. Early in the spring, a television man told us. Remember- ing that the advent of the radio had found the populace verbally confused, uncertain, for instance, whether the wire 0.,. :-:-: ., ^ ...:::.. , ':0:-, :;.. =..; ':" ', Y.::::-" ?:' {4l '%J:::/ : ,:;;, '.:::: ::.J :::: ':.', .,. :::::..:::::' ':":L:.Jìi d .::,',. i} rtI:::::,::,. '>.:.....,.,.,..::,;: ' <, .:.:."-" . .:; i;i;:;;:: i ' 'D ;' ; 'G ;!{.::é {" i . :/ó_ .' i: j3:7 ': ." =..::. ..'...;.- --"-. - '::.:::" --...l.:.... :-,::'1, "'" .$'%! . ....>.' , '\ , ':,; ..j,. VI- ,,' 'Yy '3 I ," : ,:\ - ,:',,: ;f.,;" ' .<>;'. ':::,:,' t- ;Æ t 1 s! jj 1(t :fl, ,: ';;: ÄÄM . d "'" V' . .... - . ....,. '.À :' ; ;;; , , t ,. ..:: ... y:: ,{. (::;::", .:'y.:.:. .,:,:",:. :: '. ;4:.':., :.::.:fJ'". : '::':_:.:. ...:' , ,': ?" '-;;..:: " .:: .:::;:::-:.:.:.'" - ::::,,-:". . .;:, ." ,.:,:,;,>,-,:. '-:.' , ,.:." ' '$ % :% ;i ',...... *. % ', , (( I'll peel one more, lady. Then I must ask for your yes or no." DECEMDEI\ .3, I 9.3 8 that Junior strung up in the back yard was an aerial or an antenna, we asked this man what words the layman ought to know. He gave us a dozen or so, just to get started on. In the first place, the word "tele- cast," for television broadcast, is a jour- nalistic hybrid. It's frowned upon by television people, but they admit that it may catch on with the public. The audience of a television broadcast are "lookers-in," and this also forms the verb: "Did you look in last night?" A "dead show" is one made up of ma- terial recorded on a film, a "live show" is one in which the performers appear in the flesh. Knowing people will refer to the sound and visual portions of a television program as the "audio" and "video," respectively. The iconoscope, a vacuum tube which is the essential part of a sending set, is familiarly called the "ike." There is as yet no love word for the kinescope, the corresponding tube in a receIver. There are evidently many things that can go wrong in a television receiver. A "ghost" is a double image. "Noise" is the visual equivalent of static-spots on the picture. "'Then your set is out of syn- chronization the image sort of bobs and weaves; it is then "out of sync." ..(-\, "bloom" is a flare of light on the pic- ture; in the opposite condition, when there isn't enough light, the picture is "in the mud." Some of the terms have been borrowed from the movie tech- nicians, notably "blizzard head" for blonde; that's because blondes reflect the light and acquire a sort of halo. The terms "small down payment," "repair- man," and "Orson Welles" have been taken over unchanged from present-day broadcasting. Gus T HERE is a gentleman of Wall Street and the Jersey shore whose last name IS Leeds and whose first name is Lawrence, although he is never called by his friends anything but Gus. \Ve had taken no especial interest in Leeds until the other evening, when we heard him explain how he came to be called Gus. It went back to the \Vorld War. As a lad he had en- listed in the Navy, and shortly there- after he and some fellow-tars were in a dive which sold drinks illegally. On top of that, they were in civilian clothes, which they understood vaguely was a capital offence. The place was raided by the police, and Lawrence had but one idea of what to do under the cir-